Apparently, HBO's new slogan could be "It's not television, it's a concept album and online ARG about a futuristic dystopia turned into mini-series." That's if new reports that the cable channel is planning to adapt Nine Inch Nail's Year Zero into a TV series turn out to be true, of course.The LA Times is reporting that Trent Reznor has been in talks with the channel about transferring his cross-media response to the current American political climate to television, with Reznor appearing to be quite optimistic about the idea:

It's the most exciting thing on the horizon, it's the thing that when I wake up in the morning it makes me say, 'God it would be cool if that happened... This is my grand ambition. Will it happen? I don't know. It was fun sitting and telling [the HBO] guys and watching them shake their head and having writers on board and producers that are in to it. It's been a fun thing.

Year Zero is set in the year 2022, in an America in the midst of a nuclear war with Iran and besieged at home by terrorist attacks and the new governmental agency The Bureau of Morality. In addition to the NIN album bearing the name, the initial launch of the project also included an ARG created by 42 Entertainment, who have previously worked with Steven Spielberg and the makers of the Halo game. Any potential TV series would co-exist with more projects along the same lines, according to Reznor:

I just pitched it to HBO two weeks ago in L.A. It went great. Ideally, we're trying to get them to do a two-year limited series. I prefer that over a film. We would have a second ARG tying into the second album and ties into the series and they all happen together with a budget needed to pull that all off. There would be a tour down the road. The record completes the story, the ending that no one knows. I know what happens. I knew when I started it. And it's not what people think.